Phantastes, A Faerie Romance for Men and Women

In October 1857, George MacDonald wrote what he described as "a kind of fairy tale, in the hope that it will pay me better than the more evidently serious work." This was Phantastes—one of MacDonald’s most important works; a work which so overwhelmed C. S. Lewis that a few hours after he began reading it he knew he "had crossed a great frontier."

The book is about the narrator’s (Anodos) dream-like adventures in fairyland, where he confronts tree-spir…